Word.ws English Dictionary

rattle someone's cage

rattle someone's cage verb: to demand attention from someone; to nag, nudge, or remind someone.

Verb

rattle someone's cage (third-person singular simple present rattles someone's cage, present participle rattling someone's cage, simple past and past participle rattled someone's cage)

  1. (informal) To demand attention from someone; to nag, nudge, or remind someone.
    • Nobody has corrected the problem yet, so it's time to rattle their cage.
  2. (informal) To anger or to annoy someone.
    • If you really want to rattle his cage, ask him about his family.

Synonyms of rattle someone's cage

Forms of rattle someone's cage

third-person singular presentrattles someone's cage
present participlerattling someone's cage
past participlerattled someone's cage
pastrattled someone's cage

Questions about rattle someone's cage

What does rattle someone's cage mean?
Rattle someone's cage means to demand attention from someone; to nag, nudge, or remind someone.
What part of speech is rattle someone's cage?
Rattle someone's cage is a verb.
What is the past tense of rattle someone's cage?
The past tense of rattle someone's cage is rattled someone's cage.

Words near rattle someone's cage in the dictionary

  1. rattle one's saber
  2. rattle one's sabre
  3. rattle sabres
  4. rattle snake
  5. rattle snakes
  6. rattle someone's cage
  7. rattle someone's chain
  8. rattle stone
  9. rattle stones
  10. rattle the bones
  11. rattle the saber

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rattle someone's cage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rattle someone's cage.ogg.

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